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The First Slam Dunk, Sand Land Anime Films Win at Fantasia Int'l Film Festival
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
Additionally, the anime film of Akira Toriyama's SAND LAND manga won the special jury mention in the same category. The festival is taking place from July 20 to August 9 in Montreal.
The Axis: Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation recognizes excellence in animation in the animated feature category. This year's jury includes Nadim Zaidi, Aki Takabatake, and Arizona O'Neill. The jury stated about The First Slam Dunk film: “A gem of a film through and through that enriches an already existing franchise, while at the same time remaining open to viewers who never have never seen or read any of the previous, existing material.”
The film opened in Japan on December 3, and ranked at #1 in its opening weekend. The film sold 847,000 tickets and earned 1,295,808,780 yen (about US$9.50 million) over its opening weekend. The film won Animation of the Year at the 46th annual Japan Academy Film Prizes. Toshiyuki Matsui, the film's producer, received this year's general award for Eiga Engeki Bunka Kyōkai's (Film Theater Culture Association) 42nd annual Fujimoto Awards.
As of July 23, the film had sold a cumulative total of 10.33 million tickets to earn 14,900,403,870 yen (about US$105.3 million). The film is now the 14th highest-earning film of all time in Japan, and is also now the eighth highest-earning anime film in Japan.
GKIDS released the film in the United States and Canada with both an English dub and with Japanese audio and English subtitles last Friday. The Box Office Mojo website is estimating a Friday-Sunday opening weekend earning of US$625,561 in North America.
The film will end its run in Japanese theaters on August 31.
The film's screening at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival was its Canadian premiere.
TOHO will open the film in theaters in Japan on August 18. The film will have IMAX, 4DX, and MX4D screenings in Japan that will start on the same day.
Toshihisa Yokoshima ("Tales of Crestoria: The Wake of Sin," "Amanatsu," "Cocolors," Dragon Quest games' sequences) directed the film at Sunrise, Kamikaze Douga, and Anima with Hiroshi Koujina (Ryoma! The Prince of Tennis, The Vampire Dies in No Time, Grenadier) serving as the direction adviser. Hayashi Mori (Cells at Work! Code Black, Drifting Home) wrote the screenplay. Yoshikazu Iwanami directed the sound, and Yūgo Kanno (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Psycho-Pass, Ajin) composed the music.
The Sand Land manga is a short series that Toriyama serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine from May to August 2000. Shueisha published one compiled book volume of the manga in November 2000.
Sources: Fantasia International Film Festival's website, Variety (Marta Balaga)
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
